---
title: About public packages
---

As an npm user or organization member, you can create and publish public packages that anyone can download and use in their own projects.

- **Unscoped** public packages exist in the global public registry namespace and can be referenced in a `package.json` file with the package name alone: `package-name`.
- **Scoped** public packages belong to a user or organization and must be preceded by the user or organization name when included as a dependency in a `package.json` file:
  - `@username/package-name`
  - `@org-name/package-name`

## Next steps

- "[Creating and publishing scoped public packages][create-scoped-pkg]"
- "[Creating and publishing unscoped public packages][create-unscoped-pkg]"
- "[Using npm packages in your projects][use-pkg]"

[create-scoped-pkg]: creating-and-publishing-scoped-public-packages
[create-unscoped-pkg]: creating-and-publishing-unscoped-public-packages
[use-pkg]: using-npm-packages-in-your-projects
